International Women’s Day Calls Out For Supporters Of All Genders, Sexualities, Ages

[dropcap] H[/dropcap]ere at Reasons to Be Beautiful magazine, we advocate equality for men ,women and trans-gendered. Today we celebrate a day that calls for the support of the advancement of women’s initiatives; a movement that has grown sustainably over the past two centuries and is still need of our vital attention.

International Women’s Day was created to share the talents, achievements, past and future ambitions of women across the world. The highlight of the cause transpires from the early 20th century oppression of women in 1908 where 15,000 women marched in New York City to declare a plea for equality through better pay, voting rights, and shorter hours. Now, in 2012, the movement seeks for us to remember the oppression women of all racial identities faced and how we, as a whole, can distinguish the flourishing of equality in the future.

Shocking Statics on Gender Equality in The Workforce

Earlier this week, we retweeted Cosmopolitan UK on our new interactive Twitter account to sign a petition asking for the United Kingdom to close the pay gap between men and women.  The petition claims that women who work full-time in the United Kingdom are paid on average 14.9 % less per hour than their male co-workers. “At the current rate of change, a baby girl born this year will not achieve equal pay until she is 97 years old,” the petition adds. Click here to sign it!  It is evident that the glass ceiling for women in the Western hemisphere is still prevalent today.  It is reported that only 16.1 percent of women take up board seats at Fortune 500 companies according to Catalyst.org, a website that supports the opportunities of women in the work force.

African-American women comprised 5.2 percent of all people employed in management, professional, and related occupations where as Asian-American women comprised 2.8 percent and Latinas made only 3.8 percent. If that is not shocking enough, only 56.6 percent of women with children under the age of one were considered in the labor force according to the site’s statistics.

It is revealed that the cultural and socio-economic realities of women in the workforce call for the attention of gender equality. The classic, western conception of male hierarchy in the workforce, home, and throughout the world stops with the blossoming of International Woman’s Day. With only 56.6 percent of women with children in the United States working, it is evident that the traditional concepts of American domestic households still reign today.

How You Can Make A Change

The movement seeks individuals to act locally and think globally.  International Woman’s Day encourages men and women to appreciate the change made in the past century with more women visible as role models, a greater equality in legislative rights, and more women in the boardroom. However, the change that is needed is still palpable as the cause’s website states, “Women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”

We have already see the digression of women rights in 2012 with the new Texas law with “forced consent” on ultrasounds for women seeking abortion and the popular quote surfing around the internet from Rush LimBaugh that says “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society.”

The change needed is unmistakable.  You can help (whether man, woman, or transgendered) by participating and hosting events for the cause.

To learn more, click here.

Image from http://weareequals.org